I Became a Mythical Hunter After Killing the Golden Goblin - Chapter 67

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 67. Hidden Stage – Decayed Black Mage’s Hideout (3)
As three spells materialized around me, I couldn’t help but exhale a hollow sigh. This truly felt like death itself was pressing a blade against my throat.
The magical essence woven into each dark incantation possessed a power that surpassed my mana—artificially inflated by the mythic-tier stat of Arrogance.
Even in decay, this being transcended the realm of Grand Mages. Beyond SSS-rank in Hunter classification. Entities that had, without exaggeration, achieved transcendence itself.
I had been far too careless. I’d thought: what difficulty could there be against an opponent merely clinging to life?
And Misfortune hadn’t even begun to exert its proper influence yet, and already I felt an insurmountable wall looming before me.
‘Have I grown arrogant?’
Is this truly the end? Negative thoughts threatened to engulf my mind, but I cast them aside.
No. This cannot be the end. Find a way. Find the method to overcome this. Then it came.
A voice reached me from behind—calm, utterly devoid of emotion.
《Fourth-Circle elemental dark magic—Lightning that tears the abyss. Frost tempest that summons calamity. Magma rising from the deepest pit. The lightning that tears the abyss differs from ordinary lightning in its sluggish velocity, yet boasts devastating destructive power. The frost tempest that summons calamity manifests a calamity-level blizzard within a designated area; calamity will drag all things toward annihilation. The magma rising from the deepest pit—a spell that manifests magma surging from the depths of the demonic realm, obliterating all existence within its tier. It is wise not to touch it.》
The moment the spirit finished its calm explanation, it drew a sharp breath and turned its gaze toward me. Its face now possessed reason—something absent mere moments before.
The instant our eyes met, I understood instinctively: it had recovered nearly all of its fragmented memories.
Yet something remained incomplete. A single piece was still missing for any action to be taken.
But that was sufficient. The final piece was filled by Heaven’s Fortune itself.
〚Heaven’s Fortune, roused from profound slumber by your peril, scatters its last remaining fragment of power.〛
〚A trace amount remains insufficient to fulfill your desire!〛
〚Insufficient!〛
.
.
.
Countless messages flashed in less than a second, and I instinctively unleashed a blessing.
〚Rune: Domain Manifestation—the harsh winter of destiny unfolds!〛
〚Tethelgius the Dark Mage is forcibly granted a speck of Misfortune; his fortune decreases slightly.〛
〚The purified, pristine ??? spirit is forcibly granted a speck of Heaven’s Fortune; its fortune increases slightly.〛
Not yet. Still insufficient.
A pair of wings—one black, one white—manifested at my back. As my stats surged, Heaven’s Fortune unhesitatingly expended its power.
Misfortune, too, seized the moment before the newfound strength faded, channeling it directly into the scheme it had devised.
This was precisely why I’d sought to avoid using the wings. Yet there was no choice. In this moment, overcoming the death that had arrived was far more pressing than guarding against Misfortune’s machinations.
《Ah…!》
The final piece was filled. Through Heaven’s Fortune, the spirit recovered a speck of memory.
And the instant the spirit reclaimed that fragment of remembrance, its form transformed. The semi-transparent silhouette that had only indirectly suggested human shape—it changed.
Within the system window, she had not yet reclaimed her name. Yet her appearance could be recovered. Though her body remained absent, leaving her semi-transparent, she had manifested her form as it once was.
She was a beauty beyond words—so exquisite that language itself seemed inadequate. And possessed of such nobility, such purity.
Her distinguishing feature: she bore wings identical to mine—one pair black, one pair white. Her identity was instantly discernible.
“A Fallen Angel?”
Ten pairs of wings unfurled in breathtaking splendor. The elderly man who had been about to unleash his spells upon me gasped in utter shock.
《Though infinitesimal, you are a being of great significance. I offer you my gratitude.》
With those words, she flew toward me.
《I have not yet reclaimed my name, yet it seems you alone possess the path to restore it.》
She flew straight into me, seeping into my very being.
《I shall forge a contract of souls with you. And this is my repayment.》
Ah! Something surges up from deep within my dantian.
“Ah…!”
The moment an involuntary cry escaped my lips, the old man, shaking off his shock, urgently raised his hand and unleashed magic upon me.
Magic hurtling toward me at tremendous speed. In a span so brief it could be called an instant, the spells reached me and sought to tear me asunder—but.
Too late.
〚The Fallen Angel: ??? who found the dust of memory descends upon you!〛
〚This is the target of the soul contract stemming from the system reward.〛
〚The system bears the cost of descent for this single occasion!〛
Whoooosh!
Ten pairs of wings erupt from my back. Including the single pair of Lucifer’s wings I originally possessed, a total of eleven pairs unfold—and an overwhelming wave of power sweeps across the surroundings.
Each one possesses the potential to obliterate an entire city with ease, yet all the magic vanishes in an instant.
〚The Fallen Angel: ??? who found the dust of memory has not yet fully recovered her rank and power!〛
〚The duration of descent is reduced to 30 seconds!〛
Thirty seconds. My soul settles into my mindscape. In exchange, my body is controlled by ???.
There is no problem. I harbored no fear of losing my body. I felt it instinctively—that such a thing could never occur. And even if she attempted such a thing, the beings present here would never permit it.
Now in my mindscape, I understand. Why the Spear-form Parasitic Worm chose self-annihilation.
It is overwhelming. Now, with equal exchange joining as well, four authorities and one authority wearing the guise of a unique ability are stationed here.
I see it now. I was drawing upon only a speck of the authorities’ power. Each of these is an incomprehensible ability.
A power that cannot be explained by reason, and thus is called authority.
〚You have gained an understanding approaching a faint fragment concerning authority!〛
〚The proficiency of all authorities increases ever so slightly!〛
My consciousness returns. I regain control of my body. A mere thirty seconds.
Such a brief, fleeting span of time—and when it had passed and I once more beheld the world through my flesh, everything had transformed.
The magic that sought my death had been cleanly erased, the eighteen remaining corridors were all severed, the magical apparatus lay shattered, and the old man within it had collapsed to the ground, gasping his final breaths.
“Guh…ugh…I…can’t…”
The old man, as though refusing to die this way, crawled across the floor and desperately licked at the liquids with his tongue. But it was futile.
His life had already reached a point beyond continuation. He had expended far too much power unleashing fifth-circle elemental magic at me.
He never anticipated this outcome. He must have believed that if he killed me, he could recover without limit.
“He was fortunate.”
Yes, there was no other way to describe it.
What if I had not severed the monster of malice with the Causal Blade, failing to purify its soul?
What if heavenly fortune had not aided the soul in reclaiming its memories?
From the worst circumstances, I had forged the best outcome. I transformed Man-byeon into a blade with satisfaction and pierced the old man’s chest.
“I want…to live.”
The Decayed Dark Sorcerer, who had lived shamefully refusing death, breathed his last with those final words.
〚You have defeated the unique Rank A- LV 60 Decayed Dark Sorcerer Tethelgius!〛
〚Contribution: 100%〛
〚You receive as reward: White Coin×1, Title: Archmage of Defying Heaven [Legendary-S-].〛
〚Hidden Stage: Decayed Black Mage’s Hideout cleared!〛
〚You have been rewarded with the Dark Mage’s Treasure Vault Key.〛
〚You have been rewarded with Item: Unstable Knowledge of Immortality Tome [Ancient-S+] and Item: Unstable Elixir of Immortality [Ancient-SS-].〛
The moment the rewards for clearing a Hidden Stage within the Abyss materialized before me, my body was seized by an overwhelming sense of finality and exhaustion.
I was spent. I collapsed onto the ground where I stood.
“Hah… I nearly died there.”
Everything had deviated so far from my original plan that I hadn’t anticipated it would be this grueling. Originally, I was supposed to enter the secret vault rather than the hideout, defeat the guardian monster protecting it, and find the item that would grant me a Mythic-tier Quest—and that would have been the end of it.
As I wavered between hollow relief and the pride of having overcome such odds, a diminished Fallen Angel materialized before me.
《Contractor.》
“Ah… Fallen Angel. Thank you. I wouldn’t have survived without your help.”
《It is of no consequence. Your aid allowed me to recover fragments of my memories, however infinitesimal. That creature was also a target of my vengeance.》
She gazed distantly into the void before speaking again.
《I was once a most faithful subordinate to someone. I truly believed in and followed that great and magnificent being. There was no honor greater than standing at their side. And yet…》
Her beautiful, flawless face crumpled in an instant.
《All memories after that point are gone. The only other memory I can recall is that this old man conducted experiments on me, and I became… this. Well, I suppose that insignificant worm received due compensation for daring to touch something as incomprehensible as myself.》
Ah, so part of the story about touching something incomprehensible and falling into ruin was connected to the Fallen Angel?
I let out a hollow laugh and shook my head—all twenty of them, ten pairs of wings.
Lucifer, the greatest archangel and master of Pride among the Seven Deadly Sins, possessed twenty-four wings. Compared to him, this being surely stood at no lesser rank.
Conducting experiments on such an existence? Either madness or a death wish.
《Do you regret forming a soul contract with me? Now our fates are bound together.》
“Not particularly. After all, you saved my life. As long as it’s beneficial, there’s no downside to it.”
《Then so be it. I look forward to our cooperation. Assisting me in recovering my memories is the sole condition I propose.》
“Understood.”
A being connected to the Dark Mage. Then it must surely relate to the profession I’m seeking to obtain.
With that thought, I nodded and rose to my feet. The ruined chamber and the unidentified liquids—now identified as the Elixir of Immortality—were absorbed into my inventory as rewards.
‘Has Misfortune already ended?’
Was using fourth-circle magic what triggered Misfortune? But the Indomitable message hasn’t appeared?
I furrowed my brow and tensed, scanning my surroundings carefully. Yet… no matter how long I waited, nothing changed.
I furrowed my brow and pushed aside the unease, moving forward.
‘Could it be that Misfortune wasn’t applied to this place?’
What’s happening elsewhere?
For now, I set that aside and retrieved a key from my inventory—the Dark Mage’s Treasure Vault Key.
Unlike that creature before my regression, who used underhanded methods, I would enter through legitimate reward.
I inserted the key into the vault entrance beyond the chamber and stepped inside.
“Just as I expected, it’s similar to what I heard.”
This creature had watched his allies and faction collapse before fleeing. Given that he’d squandered vast wealth on immortality research, it would be stranger if there were anything left.
I thoroughly surveyed the empty Dark Mage’s Treasure Vault and collected every item within. The two most valuable were:
〚Item: Flame Reborn Beyond Death—???’s Fragment [Legendary-EX+]〛
〚Item: Ring of Unknown Identity [Common-F]〛
The former was something I’d never encountered before. A Legendary-tier item at EX+ rank, no less!
Unfortunately, when I examined The Sun with my senses, all of its abilities were marked with question marks, but if the conditions were met, it seemed like it would become an extremely useful card.
And the latter was exactly what I had been longing for.
“An item for Mythic-grade adversarial jobs.”
First, let me get out of this irritating place and check it. With that thought, I stepped outside and was about to exit the Hidden Stage when it happened.
〚Misfortune, which had been waiting for this very moment, poured all of its power into the attack.〛
Misfortune moved. And it grinned at me with a fishy smile, as if everything up until now had been nothing.
The moment the creature exerted its power, the flame I held in my hand burned black and seared my palm.
“Aaagh!”
Reflexively dropping the flame in pain, it was sucked into the corpse of the dead old man as if it had been waiting for this moment.
“Damn it… What now?”
《What is this… How is this possible?》
The flame consumes the old man’s body.
As if it were a sacrifice.
And from within the sacrifice, a being tears through flesh and is reborn.
〚Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!〛
The system screams. That it’s dangerous. That something has gone wrong.
〚A fragment of the Demon that fell into the abyss of eternity has fulfilled the conditions and reveals itself once more!〛
《This creature should have been torn apart and sealed in countless places by that person!》
Had my memories returned further? She seemed to know the being being born from that flame.
〚The target has an extreme difference in tier compared to this stage!〛
〚This is a legitimate resurrection through condition fulfillment. Intervention is impossible!〛
〚Using the stage tier gap, the Hidden Stage is opened to apply minimal restraint!〛
The system, amid the chaotic situation, calmly assessed the circumstances and declared it.
〚Hidden Stage: Divine Seat: The Fallen Lamb That Atones, Fragment of Azazel begins!〛
【It has been an eternity. World! Bow your heads and atone for the resurrection of I, Azazel! The great fall has descended, tearing through the body of the great sacrifice! Confess your sins! I, Azazel, shall judge your sins!】
〚Survive.〛

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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